Intel's new Core i7-980X Gulftown processor kicked some serious ass in our first round of benchmarking, but for the most part, it's over clocking potential is still unknown. Its 32nm process should help it run cooler, but the 2 extra cores generate a great deal of extra heat that cannot be ignored. Well if you're worried about buying an over clocking dud, or simply don't have the patience to mess around in the bios, custom builder Origin PC has you covered.

Each and every Core i7 offered has an over clocking option available directly out of the box, and that includes Intel's newest 6 core monster processor. For a mere $1,044 (only $45 over list), customers can get a 1GHz over clock on day one that comes with a manufacturer's warranty. The over clocking option forces you switch over to liquid cooling, but is a great option if you want the fastest rig around, and you can't be bothered to do it yourself.

Meet the world’s fastest CPU. OK, so we just gave away the big reveal to our report before you even flipped one page, and without so much as the common courtesy of a spoiler alert. For that, we do not apologize, because it’s not like you couldn’t have guessed how this one would end up. After all, Intel’s new 3.33GHz Core i7-980X builds on all the goodness of the ass-kicking quad-core 3.33GHz Core i7-975 Extreme Edition, but is smaller, cooler, and has an additional two cores under its heat spreader. With Hyper-Threading enabled, that’s a cool 12 threads at the ready. How could anyone screw that one up?

In fact, Intel’s Core i7-980X seems to be one of the most flawless launches we’ve seen from the company in some time. By flawless, we mean there are no contortionist acts, such as explaining to consumers that a new socket (LGA1156) will have the same CPU branding as an incompatible existing socket. Nor is there the head-scratcher of a very novel, yet very limp, integrated graphics chip in a CPU (Clarkdale), which, by the way, won’t work in boards that lack graphics output ports.

With Core i7-980X, you update your BIOS, drop the chip in, and—voilà—you spend hours rocking a six-core high. Put simply, Core i7-980X is 24-ounces of prime-rib red meat for performance enthusiasts who really haven’t had much to gnaw on since the original 3.2GHz Core i7-965 Extreme Edition came out two years ago.

So we’re done, right? You don’t need to read on? Sorry, there’s still more to learn. If you want to know if your motherboard works with the new chip, what applications can really exploit the six cores, and how this bad boy performs, you’ll have to keep reading.